calico illustrated classics Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice Adapted by Jan Fields Adapted by Jan Fields Illustrated by Illustrated by Eric Scott Fisher Eric Scott Fisher magic wagon
1 The Bennets It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife In the village of Longbourn the arrival of a young man of fortune to the neighborhood was exciting beyond words Nowhere was the excitement more obvious than at the estate house itself You must visit Netherfi eld Park to meet Mr Bingley Mrs Bennet announced to her husband He must marry one of our girls Is that why he has come here Don’t be silly his wife said But he is certain to fall in love with one of them Perhaps you should visit him with all the girls her husband said I will send along a 4
note giving my permission to marry whichever one of you he likes With fi ve daughters of marrying age Mrs Bennet could think of little but marriage all the time The Longbourn estate could only be passed from one male to another With no Bennet sons the house and income would move to a distant cousin when Mr Bennet died Mrs Bennet’s only hope was to marry her daughters to fi ne gentlemen as quickly as possible We’ll see Mr Bingley at social events her second-oldest daughter Elizabeth said sensibly Mrs Long has promised to introduce us Her mother sniffed Like she would do that She is a selfi sh woman with two daughters of her own Oh forget Mr Bingley I wish you had told me before I visited him Mr Bennet said with a smile Now you must meet him It’s only proper The girls squealed with joy and Mrs Bennet scolded her husband for teasing her 5
